Mandy Astronomonov
by Tib Dunncan
Summary: What better way to rival Dexter than with more Mandarks?


"Deeee Deeee…"

This momentary distraction was enough for Dexter. More and more, now, he'd been relying on his older sister as a weapon against his arch nemesis, Mandark. The young boy rushed over to a control panel while Mandark was staring lovingly at Dee Dee, who was doing nothing but standing there, and pushed a button, effectively expelling the intruder.

Too late did Mandark realize what exactly the button did, and found himself thrown unforgivingly onto the pavement outside of Dexter's house by a pair of measly Dexbots.

The boy cursed his enemy, "How dare he use Dee Dee as a diversion – By him employing her, he has me outnumbered!" not that he'd ever cared about playing fair before, but when it was AGAINST him… "Alas, my own sister wouldn't dream of helping me. If only I could even the playing field as easily as I could level Dexter's Laboratory! If only there were another who despised Dexter as much as I do!" the boy steamed as he crossed the street back to his own home, down into the secret basement, into his laboratory, and started tinkering, as a master plan developed in his head.

That is exactly what he would do! What better way to even the playing field than to recruit someone exactly like Mandark? No, even better – to recruit ANOTHER Mandark!

He peeked his head into the deep-freeze containment, where several vials of his own DNA were stored. Mandark removed one of the vials and carefully inserted it into the Bio-enhancement machine. If he could use this machine to genetically alter the complete genetic makeup of a monkey, then with a few adjustments, it should serve quite nicely as a bio-engineer. Granted, it would take a few more days than if he were just altering the DNA, no he's growing a complete ORGANISM from the small strand. But as long as Dexter didn't instigate anything until the project was over, all would work in favor of MANDARK!

Dexter was not happy, as of current. Mandark was acting… unusual. He'd done everything to try to get him to act like his usual, arrogant self, but no matter what he did, Mandark remained to be… Dare he say it? Nice.

He shook the thought from his mind in order to concentrate on his work. This month's work was already done, and he was working on next month's math.

But the annoying little notion kept popping back up. What was he planning? Why was he suddenly so un-mandarkish? It was driving him up the wall, and Mandark knew it. Dexter could tell that his enemy was enjoying this short period of distress on his part, because Mandark knew Dexter had no idea what was going on. He was planning something, he just knew it… but he hadn't the faintest idea what.

A week and a half from the date he placed his DNA in the modified Bio-Enhancer, and Mandark hadn't been in his lab since. He was starting to think he was going through withdrawal. Without his lab, what better things were there to do around this pathetic town? Join his parents in their idiotic meditations and chanting rituals? He could practically feel his brain cells die.

But no matter, in a matter of hours, the bio-engineered replica would be complete!

Mandark was frantic with anticipation. If he didn't slow down, he'd mess up the finalization process.

This was a fine day for Mandark's genius!

He undid the latch on the organism chamber, whereupon a hiss and cloud of smoke produced by the excess energy spilled out into the room.

Perhaps the finest thing about this experiment was that he would finally be able to destroy Dexter's laboratory without any complica-

Something went wrong, he could tell. The silhouetted shadow of his bio-replica was… shorter that Mandark truly was. By at least a head.

The boy sighed and turned. "Very well. At least you may help me until I can eradicate all of the bugs in the system."

"Of course, Mandark." His replica stepped out of the chamber.

The boy stopped. Height _and_ voice? The replica's voice was distinctly higher than his own. Oh, no…

Mandark turned around to face his replica, what could have been his fraternal twin. "You… You're a-"

"A clone, I know."

A clone? He could hardly call it that. Clones were EXACT replicas of something. This… this was nothing short of a failure.

It seemed that the machine had made one rather crucial error. His clone was… a girl…

Well, it just proved that great scientific breakthroughs took a slightly longer period of time than a week. He would have to go back and look at the outline of his experiment, see what went wrong. In the mean time…

The boy turned back to his… replica. "Tell me something." He looked at her for a moment, absently noting that the girl sitting before him was what Lalavava would probably look like in a few years.

"Anything," she said, sitting on a solitary block of iron, something he was planning to turn into a de-construction Mandroid and send it over to Dexter's. Hmm…

"Do you know who Dexter is?"

She seemed to think for a moment. "No,"

"Good. You're going to learn. You see my wondrous laboratory," he said, gesturing to all the beakers and machines. "Dexter, the boy across the street form here, has repeatedly tried to destroy my pride and joy. If you'd be so kind as to retaliate for me, this way he's not at an advantage. His destruction of my equipment set me back by months, and now the playing field is uneven. Perhaps you'd like to help with that, uh…"

"Mandy, if you will."

Great. Mandy. "Yes. Mandy Astronomonov." Well, if she was going to be around until he could work the bugs out, she might as well at least THINK she was needed. Best to get her out of his hair and over to Dexter's. At least, if she was going to do any damage, she could do it there.

But she just sat quietly. She didn't seem hyperactive. No matter, Mandark thought to himself. She was still getting out of here.

"Come." He led her up into the main of the house, out into the street and over to his rival's home. Not a word out of her the whole time.

Mandark rang the doorbell.

"Hello?"

It took a few moments, but he was eventually able to form words in front of the blonde girl. "Uhm… Dee Dee, meet Mandy." He pulled his duplicate in front of him and left, not wanting to be around when the destruction started.

When he got back to his front door, and turned around, Dee Dee and Mandy were still just standing there, talking, smiling… And then Dee Dee asked if Mandy would like to come inside.

Both girls disappeared as the door closed.

"So, Mandy, what do you like to do?" Dee Dee bubbled as she led the girl down the hall.

"Don't know. What do you like?"

"Ponies, and dolls, and rainbows and Unicorns, and sunshine and…" Mandy sat listening to the blonde's rambling, only speaking up once she stopped.

"Don't you have a brother?"

Dexter walked into his laboratory quite oblivious, reading and rereading the statistics of his latest experiment, which were posted neatly on the clipboard he was carrying with him.

There was something… out of place, he thought as he walked among the machinery.

A giggle. Dexter looked up and saw, in the middle of the room, a pile of rubble, what used to be his machinery, and two people sitting atop it, one of which was his sister, which he didn't find unusual, but the other…

Dexter recovered from his shock quickly, extremely agitated. "Mandark, how did you get into my – No! Never mind, just get OUT!" he shouted.

Still, something seemed amiss. This person didn't really look like Mandark. For one, their hair was much longer than his. And their build seemed different, if only slightly…

"DeeDee? Mandark?" he shouted up at the pair.

The latter – or, who Dexter had assumed was the latter – jumped up and skidded down from atop the rubble, coming to a stop in front of the boy and reaching a hand out to him. "Hi, I'm Mandy!" she bubbled.

He was not amused. "Dexter." He said, flatly. "You wouldn't happen to be an Astronomonov, would you?"

She smiled and nodded. "Yes! I'm cousins with your friend across the street."

"Right." He turned. "Come with me."

Mandy looked back at DeeDee, who shrugged, and both followed.

Dexter led them out of the lab, downstairs, then into the living room, and then the foyer. "Here," he said, "is the door. Please feel free to use it." He opened the door and shoved her out, closing it behind the girl. "Now," he said to DeeDee, who was in fact standing right behind him, "I have some cleaning up to do."

His sister followed him all the way back down to his laboratory. This irritated him. Was it not enough that she had just destroyed half his laboratory with his arch nemesis's _cousin_? "What is it that you want?"

"That wasn't very nice, Dexter. I don't throw Douglas out when he comes over!" she protested.

"You do not understand. That was nothing more than Mandark using his own family to try to destroy my laboratory." He said, picking up a wrench and tightening a bolt on an otherwise blank sheet of metal.

DeeDee stood there for a few moments, looking over her brother's shoulder at whatever it was he was doing. "This is why most of your friends are computers," she said, walking away.

Dexter stopped, seemingly surprised that she had said that, though it wasn't unusual. He frowned and continued working.

Mandy knocked on the front door, which was quickly opened by her counterpart. "Well?"

"Well what?" she asked, frowning. "I got in the lab, did as you said… and then he kicked me out." She walked past Mandark and down to his lab, which he did not like.

"A thin layer of Earth separates our laboratories, and I didn't hear a single explosion!" Mandark retorted angrily. Why had he trusted that this failure of a experiment could do sufficient work?

"That DeeDee has an uncanny talent for destroying her brother's machinery quickly and effectively." She said, nonchalantly.


End file.
